Saturday, March 22, 2008

Stix Restaurant and Lounge, Boston

Earlier this week I finally got the chance to check out one of the newer restaurants in Boston. Stix Restaurant & Lounge opened last summer as a new concept place that serves the majority of their offerings on wooden sticks that are infused with a variety of different flavors. The idea is that the flavor infused into the sticks will then lend itself to the protein that is cooked on it. I have been excited to check this place out since it opened.As it was still Restaurant Week (which is oddly actually two weeks) we were privvy to the fixed price menu options. For my first course I chose Shrimp on a Thai coconut lime stick, that was accompanied by a pineapple dipping sauce. The flavoring of the stick worked marvelously and created a hinted backround flavor. The pineapple sauce was sweet where the shrimp was slightly spicy and it offset it well. D had the same as I did, and our only complaint on the course was that the sticks were rather large for the shrimp and their size made it difficult to eat. Additionally, as we were attempting to eat them from the stick, I would have removed the tails. Aesthetically it obviously looked better with them on, however it just became difficult to eat.My second course was salmon served over a vegetable risotto. After dining at Dante last week, I was disappointed. I found the salmon to be overcooked to the point where it was dry. I discussed this with D and she made a good point that a bit of a crisp on the outside is good, I definitely agree, but this took that to the next level. I enjoy salmon to be medium rare, the middle slightly rare and the rest tender. Stix salmon was not up to par. The risotto was well cooked, however the vegetables were sparse and limited. I found only two or three pieces of zucchini and summer squash. Desert for me was the truffle tree, which D thoughtfully pointed out was more of a truffle cube than a tree. However four truffles were served, on sticks, out of a glass cube. The effect was nice, and the truffles were delicious. Each was a different flavor, one white chocolate, three dark chocolate. The three dark chocolates were independently flavored on by peppermint, one grand marnier and one champagne. These flavors were rather muted, and I would have liked for them to have been stronger flavors, however they were chocolate so they cant be too bad.I enjoyed the concept of Stix, and if I were to return I think I would order only from their sticks offerings as more of a tapas place. I think that their forte is mainly with those, and their entrees were an unfortunate after thought.http://www.stixboston.com/index.html

1 comment:

I'm adding my 2 cents in on my dessert, the "chocolate pudding cake." For the most part, I enjoyed it. It was a warm and dense chocolate cake accompanied by the very yummy crème fraiche ice cream. Honestly, I don't think I could have had the cake without the ice cream...it would have been TOO much chocolate. Also, I'd like to note that we were both disappointed by a lack of actual pudding in the cake's center. I was truly hoping for a warm, chocolate gooey mess. Overall, it was decent.